Engineering Students Serve as Mentors at FIRST Global Robotics Competition in Washington, DC

A team of 30 Western New England University engineering students helped support international high school students competing in the FIRST Global Robotics competition held July 16-18 in Washington, DC. Some of the University students travelled to Washington, DC, to volunteer their time and continue offering support to the international high school students.The event is an annual international robotics challenge designed to ignite a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) among the more than two billion youth worldwide.

This year’s competition included 170 teams from 160 countries who developed their robots from kits provided by FIRST Global Robotics. Ivanka Trump was a special guest at the competition where she spoke to the high school students, and kicked off a competition match that featured six all-girl teams from around the world. Trump and Western New England University senior Dakota Delisle kicked off the match. The six all-girl teams included Afghanistan, Bermuda, Ghana, Jordan, United States, and Vanuatu.

Western New England University’s students spent last semester working remotely with high school teams as technical mentors to offer guidance about the robotic kits and engineering principles. Under the direction of doctoral candidate David Greenslade ’14/G’15, the students also produced videos that feature University students, professors, and robots made at the University, to help the participants see the value of their hard work and dedication to the team effort.